Immigration Law

Dallas School District Issued Fake Social Security Numbers To Employees

By Robert Kraft

The Dallas Morning News today reports an incredible story about how the Dallas Independent School District issued fake Social Security numbers as a "temporary measure" in order to get immigrant teachers and employees on the payroll. The plan was to use the fake number until the immigrant could get a real number. Unfortunately, some of the fake numbers were turned in to the Texas Education Agency, and the ruse was discovered. Here are excerpts from the article:

Years after being advised by a state agency to stop, the Dallas Independent School District continued to provide foreign citizens with fake Social Security numbers to get them on the payroll quickly.

The practice was described in an internal report issued in September by the district's investigative office, which looked into the matter after receiving a tip. The report said the Texas Education Agency learned of the fake numbers in 2004 and told DISD then that the practice "was illegal."

The fake numbers were assigned as a stopgap to expedite the hiring process, the report says. The numbers were supposed to serve as temporary identification numbers until employees received real Social Security numbers. Once employees got the real numbers, they were supposed to tell district officials so the fake ones could be replaced.

Here's how the Dallas school district's false Social Security number process worked:

•Foreign educators on visas were assigned false Social Security numbers to get them on DISD's payroll.

•The foreign employees were instructed to obtain Social Security numbers from the Social Security Administration and report them to the district.

•Once employees received the real numbers, the district entered those numbers in place of the fake ones in a computerized management system.

•The fake numbers were supposed to be used temporarily until real numbers were in place. But some of the fake numbers wound up being sent to the Texas Education Agency when DISD asked TEA to conduct background checks on new hires. Those numbers stayed in the system if DISD didn't replace them with real Social Security numbers obtained by the employees.

Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people elsewhere. And in some cases, the state's educator certification office unknowingly used the bogus numbers to run criminal background checks on the new hires, most of whom were brought in to teach bilingual classes.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on November 14, 2008 (boomark / email).